Wendell Smith advocated bringing Jackie Robinson and other Negro league players into the majors.
Wendell Smith was 58 when he died and he was famous then.
Coming to the rescue, so to speak, was “42,” the 2013 movie about Jackie Robinson, the ballplayer played by the. Actor André Holland portrayed Smith in the film because of the newspaperman’s essential role in Robinson’s career. The introduction, by Marsh, is a masterful, lively and detailed 20,000 words, even though there were no journals or personal papers that might have aided Marsh and Smith’s widow, Wyonella, who died in 2020, was not interested in participating.
He was a talented athlete in high school and while attending West Virginia State College as a physical education major. He was the publicist for the school’s football team but his ambitions to play professional baseball were thwarted by Major League Baseball’s segregationist policies. That disappointment would fuel, as he put it, his desire to “do something on behalf of the Negro ballplayers.”
He stood out in the still rough and tumble newspaper business of the time and he was prolific, writing about baseball, boxing and other sports. In the early 1960s, he was at the forefront of the newspaper’s campaign to integrate spring training facilities in Florida. In 1964, lured by a salary double what he was making, Smith went to work for WGN-TV as a sportscaster and appeared on the station’s “People to People” news program.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Wendell Smith covered sports, history and civil rights and traveled with Jackie Robinson. A new book remembers his work.Influential Black sportswriter, Wendell Smith is the subject of a fine new book, 'The Wendell Smith Reader: Selected Writings on Sports, Civil Rights and Black History.'
Read more »
Jada Pinkett Smith and Daughter Willow Smith's 'Red Table Talk' CanceledJada Pinkett Smith, daughter Willow Smith and mother Adrienne Banfield-Norris launched their ‘Red Table Talk’ show in May 2018 — read more
Read more »
Jaden Smith Debuted His Upcoming New Balance Design at CoachellaJaden Smith brought his fashion game to Coachella, debuting a new design collaboration with New Balance. JadenSmith NewBalance Coachella
Read more »
NFL Draft Rewind: No. 26 Bijan Robinson - Rivals.com
Read more »
Smokey Robinson remembers Harry Belafonte as a 'brilliant' manSmokey Robinson remembers Harry Belafonte as “one of the most brilliant men that I’ve ever met”
Read more »
They said it: Bijan Robinson 'has everything you want in a running back'A collection of quotes about Tucson native and running back Bijan Robinson leading up to the NFL draft in Kansas City.
Read more »